Crafting impeccable arguments is time-consuming, so how can you jump to another part of the plot without setting it up?!

This is obviously something I need to work on .

I've added everyone I could add; Yarnspinner, for some reason, didn't come up in search.

But I'm excited!

That's the thing. Because I have an outline, I know what is supposed to happen in the part I jump to. Sometimes its crap and I have to re-write it. But sometimes writing that portion will give me an idea of how to get through the part I'm stuck on.

Crafting impeccable arguments is time-consuming, so how can you jump to another part of the plot without setting it up?!

This is obviously something I need to work on .

I've added everyone I could add; Yarnspinner, for some reason, didn't come up in search.

But I'm excited!

That's the thing. Because I have an outline, I know what is supposed to happen in the part I jump to. Sometimes its crap and I have to re-write it. But sometimes writing that portion will give me an idea of how to get through the part I'm stuck on.

Right. And in a dissertation, skipping to chapter 4 doesn't really help you finish the (totally different) chapter 2. Different kind of planning.

That said, I was actually a writing major in college. Novels just didn't really come into play in the semester system.

Crafting impeccable arguments is time-consuming, so how can you jump to another part of the plot without setting it up?!

This is obviously something I need to work on .

I've added everyone I could add; Yarnspinner, for some reason, didn't come up in search.

But I'm excited!

That's the thing. Because I have an outline, I know what is supposed to happen in the part I jump to. Sometimes its crap and I have to re-write it. But sometimes writing that portion will give me an idea of how to get through the part I'm stuck on.

Right. And in a dissertation, skipping to chapter 4 doesn't really help you finish the (totally different) chapter 2. Different kind of planning.

That said, I was actually a writing major in college. Novels just didn't really come into play in the semester system.

I think we might be related

I actually have a pretty detailed outline by the time NaNo starts. I was trying not to scare you

Writing a novel is scary and sometimes your characters won't do what you want them to do. Sometimes you just have to step away and do something different.

See, I'm more of a pantser than anything else. I've said before that I've had this story in my head since high school. I'm not joking. I had originally planned to make the main Earth characters high schoolers, but then I realized when I went to write it last year that it wouldn't give them the access to the same level of classes I want them to be taking, nor the same level of freedom and autonomy they need to have, so I changed it. Aside from that, this story has been rumbling around for over a decade. I don't need to plot out specific points because I already know what the characters need to accomplish.

I find that if I have the basic outline in my head, I can pull details as I go and just write. It's very similar to freewriting, and I push myself to advance at least one of the storylines each day. If I spend an entire day doing research (who knew that characters studying music in Wichita, Kansas would require an indepth knowledge of the layout of the city of Salina, traveling distance from Hays, KS to Colorado, how to soundproof a basement, various types of birds and wingspans and how wingspan and profile relates to speed and dexerity in flight, and comparative knowledge of college programs throughout the country?) then I'll make sure to advance two plot points the next day.

Another trick I learned last year, take the weekends (or whenever you have a day off work) early on and write yourself a massive pad. I had one day I wrote nearly 10,000 words. That gave me a few more days when work picked up or when my wrists were in too much pain to sit at a keyboard where I didn't have to feel bad about not writing. So write yourself as much of a pad as you can. Then ignore it. Still focus on your 1,667 a day. More, if you can.

Don't edit anything. Don't cut anything out. I went back yesterday and read what I wrote last year. Took out about 200 words, and there's much more cutting and rearranging I could easily do. I didn't do that last year because November isn't for editing, it's for getting words down. Editing can come much later. Unless it's for a typo or a completely wrong word in the sentence as you're writing it, ignore your backspace key.

And you can see by the lenth of my posts here, I'm already getting ready. Sorry for the pre-novels. I can't help it.

I'm kind of hesitant to announce that I'm doing NaNo, because I have made that announcement three times and flaked out three times. But this year I have more motivation: I'm behind on my self-imposed publishing schedule, and really need another publication to bump my sales. I'm working on an outline, which still has some alarming gaps but is coming together better now that I'm getting serious about it. Maybe if I get more involved in the whole NaNo scene, including write-ins, I'll be more likely to follow through.

I think my NaNo handle is Petticoats--I haven't even tried to log onto the site this year!

Petticoats, have you ever been over to the Get Fit thread here? We don't give you any sort of grief for not following through, we support you thorugh any difficulty you might be having, and if you don't do it, at least you tried. As Sebastienne said, even if you write half a novel, that's half a novel more than you would have done otherwise.

Petticoats, have you ever been over to the Get Fit thread here? We don't give you any sort of grief for not following through, we support you thorugh any difficulty you might be having, and if you don't do it, at least you tried. As Sebastienne said, even if you write half a novel, that's half a novel more than you would have done otherwise.

Thank you for the support, cwm. No, I haven't checked out the Get Fit thread--exercise is something else I tend to flake on!

Petticoats, just wanted to let you know that I looked for you on the NaNo site, and no one with the handle of Petticoats came up. I hope you can join us!

I'm working on the character document for my main girl (I found the questions on a characters website), and it's super extensive. There's questions like "Is your church an accepted religion where you grew up or did it have to conduct its services in secret?" and "What would you do if you had insomnia and had to find something to do to amuse yourself?"

It's really deep; if any of you want it, PM me your email address and I'll send it to you. As a super-plotter, I need this, or I'm foundering like I'm in the middle of the Pacific.

I'm also getting together a fanmix for the story. That's my main planning tool, and since I have Spotify, I can search for all different kinds of songs that I normally wouldn't have access to. That's fantastic for me because the amount of music I want is always inverse to the amount of money I can pay for it. This way, I can visualize the "film" of my novel much easier.

Crafting impeccable arguments is time-consuming, so how can you jump to another part of the plot without setting it up?!

This is obviously something I need to work on .

I've added everyone I could add; Yarnspinner, for some reason, didn't come up in search.

But I'm excited!

That's the thing. Because I have an outline, I know what is supposed to happen in the part I jump to. Sometimes its crap and I have to re-write it. But sometimes writing that portion will give me an idea of how to get through the part I'm stuck on.

Right. And in a dissertation, skipping to chapter 4 doesn't really help you finish the (totally different) chapter 2. Different kind of planning.

That said, I was actually a writing major in college. Novels just didn't really come into play in the semester system.

Sebastienne, over on the nanowrimo site, I am Aurora Goodwin.

I still have to add a whole bunch of people and haven't had a chance...